Game apparatus



Q 2 Sheets-Sheet 1. G. NEILSON GAME APPARATUS.

(No Model.)

No. 495,509, Patented Apr. 18, 1893.

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THE uunms PETERS m9 H (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

0. NEI LSON. GAME APPARATUS. No. 495.509. Patented Apr. 18, 1893.

Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton R. R. Co.

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GEN. 8UPT COUNTERSIGNATURE Witnesses Inventor @416 'WMW. O). Gfi/YfiR A p k1 Attri sy NITED STATES ATENT. FFICE.

CHARLES NEILSON, OF GLENDALE, OHIO.

GAM E APPARATU S.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 495,509, dated April 18, 1893. Application filed February 10, 1892. Serial No. 421,073. (No model.)

To aZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES NEILsoN, of

Glendale, Hamilton county, Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Game Apparatus, of which the following is a specification. My improved game apparatus is intended for use in a game which may very properly be termed Railroad geography and which is intended to combine instruction and am usement.

The geography of the school ignores the only popular routes of travel, namely, railways, and no educational system seems to have arranged to supply this deficiency, the professional traveler and the professional railway man having to pick up his knowledge of routes in day by day experience. The new game is well calculated to thoroughly school the player in railway routes, and unending amusement is found in the haphazard or chance element of the game and in the field for the exercise of judgment and calculation which it opens up.

My new apparatus and game will be readily understood from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1, illustrates a route map, it being understood that this figure is merely a small picture of a map which, in practice, will be sufiiciently large and distinct for the intended purpose; Fig. 2, a perspective View of the deck of transportation cards with which the game is to be played; Fig. 3, a face view of one of the cards; Fig. 4, a face View of one of the mileage counters; and Fig. 5,a perspective view of an exemplifying form of marker or man.

In the drawings:Fig. 1, represents a route map, the intention being that this map shall show the area or territory involved in the game, all or many of the connecting railway routes involved in that territory, the junction stations of the routes, the names of the routes and, preferably, the distance between junctions, the exemplifying illustration showing the State of Ohio with many of the principal railway routes and junction stations; Fig. 2, a pack of transportation cards, each card calling for free transportation over some portion of the railway lines upon the map, the

number of cards employed depending mainly upon the completeness of the map; Fig. 3, an exemplifyingoneof these transportation cards which will be at once recognized as a pass calling for transportation on the Cincinnati, Hamilton &Dayton railroad from Cincinnati to Toledo, a distance of two hundred and two miles, it being understood that these several passes of the pack may cover merely the distance from one junction point to another, or that they may cover the entire length of a given road, thus possibly including several stretches between junction points, or that they may cover an entire railway system, as controlled by one railway company, thus giving passage over a number of routes; Fig. 4, an exemplifying mileage-counter by which a player keeps the run of his mileage, and Fig. 5, an exemplifying form of marker or man by means of which a player marks his location upon the map, by sticking the marker into the map at one station after another as he proceeds in his travels, or by merely setting it upon such station instead of sticking it into the map.

The map should be large enough to avoid confusion in play, and, if desired, everything but the railway routes may be omitted from the map. The showing of stations, other than junction points, may be omitted if desired,

-though, preferably, all railway stations within the given territory would be shown so long as those stations are on railways which reach a junction point so as to connectwith other roads.

Taking the railway routes of the State of Ohio as they exist today, forty-three passes will completely cover the territory, and this number of passes may be increased by making them cover'shorter distances on the routes, the preference being, however, that each pass shall at least cover travel from one junction point to another.

There may be any desired number of players, and each will be provided with a counter and a man, the illustrations showing the counter and man belonging to player No.1.

The game may be played in a number of ways and one way will now be described.

The map being before the players, and each player being provided with a man, and with a counter set to zero, the passes are shuffied and dealt equally among the players. The players now, in turn, set their men at starting points of travel which they announce, each at the same time preferably announcing some distant point through which he must pass on his travels. It is understood among the players that passes represent free transportation, as called for by the passes, and that travel not covered by the passes must be paid for, say at one cent per mile. The object of the game is to travel the greatest number of miles at the least cash expense, each player utilizing in his travels all of the passes which have been dealt to him. Knowledge of routes and an inspection of hands will generally permit the brightest player to win the game, and there is every opportunity for the play of fine judgment and quick calculation. Player No.

1 surrenders to the center a selected pass leading from the starting point where he has set his man and he then sets his man to a proper junction point on his route. The surrendered pass may not have enabled him to start from the starting point, in which case he is chargeable with cash fare to the point where the pass becomes effective. The pass may have been all right from the starting point but may not have reached the selected junction point, in which case he is chargeable with cash fare past the point where the pass became effective. He may necessarily have had to surrender a long route pass in order to cover a short distance between desired j unction points, in which case he is unfortunately losing the advantage of mileage on the pass, and it is in such matters as this that knowledge and quick judgment are brought into play. The player having thus made his play new sets his counter to indicate the total number of miles traveled and may, if desired, keep record of cash, if any, paid. Player No. 2 now proceeds in like manner, and so all the players play in turn, each finally arriving at his starting point, and he who shows the greatest number of miles traveled, on passes, is the winner. Each move on the part of a player calls for the surrender of a pass, unless his passes fail him and he pays cash, and a player must exhaustall of his passes. One player may of course exhaust his passes and go out before others, it often being necessary for a player to make a move entirely on cash fare.

The game, played on the same general plan, may be modified by introducing the element of an exchange of passes between all players after each move, as each player is apt to find in his hand passes of no use on the route contemplated by him, and in this system of exchange each player will use care not to give to other players passes which will be of obvious usefulness to the recipient. Again, the game may be played by dealing a limited number of passes to each player, leaving the balance in a bone pile from which the players can draw, either regularly after each play, or only in cases where aplayer finds himself at a given point on his route without free transportation therefrom, in which case he must continue to draw passes until he gets a suitable one to effect a departure, and the game, when played in this manner, may close either when the first player is out,or when all but one are out. Again, the passes may all be distributed, as in the first case, and each player, in surrendering a pass, may be compelled to travel to the farthest point covered by that pass, proper connections being made with the next pass-point by cash mileage, in which case the counters may be used to record cash fares only, and he is the winner who gets out with the least cash payments, regardless of miles traveled.

The map may, of course, cover such territory as a single State, or it may cover an entire nation, or it may cover the entire world and include, in addition to railways, lines of water route for elfecting connections.

I claim as my invention- A game apparatus comprising a map showing routes of travel and stations on such routes, cards representing transportation over portions of said routes, and a mileage counter for each player to serve in checking the advance of such man along the road.

CHARLES NEILSON. \Vitnesses:

JAs. FITTON, M. S. BELDEN. 

